May 2018

Google’s annual IO conference was dominated by advancements in Artificial intelligence (AI). From improvements to their Waymo self-driving car, to smart compose for Gmail, which predicts phrases the user will type. But the announcement that is dominating all the headlines came in the form of ‘Google Duplex’.

The ‘Google Duplex’ is an AI assistant that has been described as the "the most incredible, terrifying thing". The assistant is able to make calls for its user and this was demonstrated by the voice booking a haircut for its ‘client’. The crowd audibly gasped when heard this in action.

The voice sounded just like a real person, the speech even included pauses, ums and ahhs, making it even more realistic. The difference between this and other assistants like Cortana and Siri is that the bot (a computer program which conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods) matches the pitch and vocals of a real person and this can be used to make new bots. Imagine booking your next appointment and not having to speak or a bot booking an appointment with you without realising.

AI has come along leaps and bound in recent years, and we can't wait for the future